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LOS ANGELES — On the eve of Labor Day, the ACLU of Southern California and the law firm of Hadsell, Stormer, Keeny, Richardson & Renick, LLP today filed a class action lawsuit in federal district court against Terra Universal, Inc., charging the multi-million dollar federal government contractor with violations of federal wage and hour laws for requiring employees to work long hours without overtime pay and systematically discriminating against Latino workers based on their race and immigration status.

Jennie Pasquarella is a staff attorney with the ACLU of Southern California.

It was President Abraham Lincoln’s greatest vision that whether you were the child of a free slave, the child of a Confederate soldier who would renounce this country, the child of a president — or even the child of a serial murderer — you should be judged on who you are, not on who your parents were. The Union was about was making sure that we all have equal opportunity to invent ourselves.

LOS ANGELES – The nation’s first class action lawsuit on behalf of immigrant detainees with severe mental disabilities – detainees who are left defenseless in a system they cannot comprehend – was filed late Monday by a coalition of legal organizations led by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Public Counsel, and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.

Ahilan T. Arulanantham is director of immigrant rights and national security for the ACLU/SC.